British Gas owner to take £70m hit from price cap

PA The new cap on energy bills is set to cost British Gas's owner Centrica £70m in the first quarter of 2019, the company has said. The cap, which starts on 1 January, means an average dual fuel customer who pays by direct debit should pay no more than £1,137 a year. This is £68 lower than British Gas's standard variable tariff. British Gas shed 372,000 household accounts in the four months to the end of October as customers left this rate. British Gas has 3.1 million customers on its SVT, down from 4.3 million at the start of the year, and plans to reduce this to below 3 million by the end of the year.